WEDNESDAY TO-DO’S

One of my goals for the New Year (2020) was to whittle my TBR shelves (at the time there were two of them in my book closet) to a reasonable size. I managed to get them down to about twenty-three books, and at the end of January, I pronounced that goal “accomplished.”

Since then, during the pandemic, people in my neighborhood have gone crazy cleaning closets, de-cluttering, and donating books to my Little Free Library…

…which leaves me with a tipsy pile of TBR books. (see photo above)

At first I tried my own “read the first fifty pages and decide” plan for discarding books. I applied this strenuously and arrived with this stack (see top photo) to read. Not only have I not accomplished my 2020 goal, but I have ruined what efforts I had made toward accomplishing it!

Some of the books are ones I kept when friends gave me hand-me-downs (Thanks, Deb Nance of Readerbuzz and Susan Wilson, downsizing friend) that I didn’t have time to read when I was scrambling to convert my Face-to-Face Advanced Writing class to an on-line format, but I promised to “take a look at later.” WARNING: Do not put off until tomorrow too many books or you will have a “Leaning Tower” similar to mine!

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YET ANOTHER BOOK ABOUT BOOKS

Although my main emphasis for 2020 is to complete Dollycas’s 2020 Alphabet Soup Challenge, author edition, to read 20 books in 2020 recommended by fellow bloggers, and to clear my TBR shelves to a manageable number of books (which I have already done), I still continue 2019’s goals of reading more non-fiction as well as Books about Books.

 

The Book I completed tonight is Charles Lovett’s The Bookman’s Tale, which is described by the cover as A Novel of Obsession. An old-fashioned romance, book-themed mystery, and dramatic who-done-it, aka Agatha-Christie-style, ending, this novel was a fun read. At a little over 300 pages, it alternated chapters between Peter, the protagonist, as a young man; Peter as a bereaved widow; and bookbinders, booksellers, and book forgers who were contemporaries of Shakespeare. Throw in the protagonist with a new love interest trapped in an underground tunnel (that connects two enemies’ manor houses) and arriving the end to be met with a self-confessed murderer aiming a pistol at them, and the reader is on his way to a bang up ending. (Sorry, I couldn’t restrain myself!)

Lovett wrote this book in 2013, but it appeals to readers of all sexes and all ages who enjoy books, bookstores, booksellers, and revelations from those who are obsessed with the authorship and collecting of books. It is an excellent read.

CLEAR THE SHELVES!

My most pressing reading goal for 2020 was to clear my TBR shelves.

Today was both a cloudy damp day and a “sickie” day where I didn’t feel like doing much of anything. So, I tackled my TBR shelves starting at 6:30 a.m.

II ruthlessly decided to read the first fifty pages of the books “I might want to read sometime” that I have continued to collect, and I dove in.

The end result was worth it! Now a good wipe with 409 and the shelves are ready to fill again.

What a good feeling!